‘Everyday Heroes’: Fallen Volunteers Hailed for Service

Two rescuers who died while answering a call for help during a boating emergency are among a dozen volunteers honoured at a touching ceremony.

The names of 62-year-old Frank Petsch and 78-year-old Bill Ewen were added to a state memorial at Sydney’s Mrs Macquarie’s Chair on Sunday.

The Marine Rescue NSW volunteers were included alongside 10 additions from the Rural Fire Service at an annual event to remember the fallen.

The pair died in May while responding to a vessel in distress near the South Ballina breakwall in northern NSW, devastating the local community and their tight-knit unit.

Marine Rescue NSW Deputy Commissioner Dan Duemmer said the pair had answered the call to help others, as many volunteers did every day.

“Bill and Frank’s legacy was built over years of selfless service, friendship, commitment, and care for others,” he said.

“They were men who embodied the very best of Marine Rescue NSW and of the community.

“Their loss has been deeply felt by their families, their fellow volunteers, and the community they served.”

The NSW Rural Fire Service volunteers whose names were added to the memorial were Peter Fenning, Christopher Little, Lisa McSweeney, Philip Dunn, John Ebbott, Stuart Clark, George Slennett, Matthew Hunter, Neil Burnett and Roger Jennings.

The memorial marked a moment to pause and remember those who dedicated their lives to their communities, NSW Emergency Services Minister Jihad Dib said.

“These are ordinary people who do extraordinary things—people who believe in a sense of service, unlike any other,” he told the service.

“People who put their lives on hold to go out and work for community at their time of greatest need.

“They’re everyday heroes … the difference is, they’re willing to run into the face of danger, go into raging waters, face storms, face everything that comes their way, because they believe in a sense of giving back.”

Family members sat among the crowd as prayers were read, before flowers were laid at the memorial.

There are now 137 names engraved on the memorial, which was established in 1999 to honour those who died while serving in the state’s volunteer emergency agencies.

By Allanah Sciberras